Trojans can't game the system

Once upon a whine, another traditional powerhouse college football team got jobbed.

Four autumns ago, another great college football team was denied a chance to play for a national title because it was a lousy year for its conference.

Auburn, undefeated and unrecognized in 2004, could not complain because it was surrounded by a bad SEC.

USC, overpowering and anonymous in 2008, cannot complain for the same reason.

The Pac-10 reeks. USC is tarnished by the stench. The Trojans could be unbeaten and they still might not be among the top two teams in the country.

As it is, they are a one-loss afterthought, no longer part of the national discussion, playing out their weak schedule with a forced smile, waiting for their bowl assignment like a yawning man waits for the bus.

They are BCS busted. And their usually measured coach, for the first time in his eight-year career here, is publicly fuming about it.

"I think it stinks," Pete Carroll said at his news conference Tuesday.

I don't think it stinks. I think it works. What has happened to USC is fair, and even appropriate.

If the Trojans can run over Auburn to the national championship game in 2004 because they won a terrific Pac-10 that featured quarterbacks such as Aaron Rodgers and Trent Edwards and Derek Anderson . . . then they can be denied during a season in which the Pac-10 has been unable to scale the Mountain West and been mostly WAC'd out.

Yes, they beat Washington by 56 points and dropped two spots in the BCS standings, but are the Huskies really any better than Louisiana Monroe and the Citadel, two teams that Auburn beat in 2004?

In the BCS, you are judged by the company you keep, and here are some of USC's buds:

Cal, loser to Maryland. Arizona, loser to New Mexico.

Oregon, beaten by Boise State. Oregon State, beaten by Penn State and Utah.

Washington and Washington State, crushed by darn near everybody.

The conference has but one great team, and USC would probably be favored over any other college team right now, and has outscored its last five opponents, 214-20.

But it doesn't matter. Nor should it.

Those who long for a college football playoff system need to understand, thanks to the BCS, there already is one. It's called the regular season.

Two years ago, the Trojans lost in the national semifinals to UCLA. Last season, they lost in the fifth round to Stanford.